Name: Mustard Sauce
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons mixed mustard; a pinch of cayenne; butter sauce

Why it works: Mustard and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,120 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

3 tablespoons mixed mustard
a pinch of cayenne
butter sauce

Directions

Make the sauce

Stir the mixed mustard and cayenne into the butter sauce.

Serve

Serve with devilled turkey or broiled smoked herrings.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Mustard + saucetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,120 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Mustard + buttertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,003 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mixed mustard: Provides sharp, pungent flavour that cuts through the richness of the butter sauce.
Cayenne: Adds gentle heat that gives the sauce a lingering background bite.
Butter sauce: Forms the rich, creamy base that carries the mustard and cayenne.